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Yea, I've hunted swampers a few times and they make for some awesome running. You'll think the dogs are running a deer. First time we hit them in Mississippi and my dogs which were not used to water hit the deep water and lost every one of them. They looked aweful, but dogs eventually figure it out. Not too many in KY, but there are a few down in the SW part of the state. You'd be better off to go South if you really want a swamper -- and if you go when it is wet your dogs won't look too good (in fact I was embarrased) -- even though I would have swore my dogs can run ANY rabbit before that first trip. Them critters can weigh well over 10 pounds, try backing 3 or 4 of them all day in a swamp. Most we killed weighed 4-7pounds, but the old ones can get huge.

Mike they are nothing like a jack rabbit in that case. They are very similar to a hill rabbit (cottontail) in most habits except their love for water and they are bigger and run bigger with less chance of going to the hole. They are more clever than a cottontail also. They will run great but they have some really neat tricks they pull. They will swim a river if need be to get away from dogs. Neatest thing of all they will do that I have seen is they will, when pursued hard, stop in a deep hole of water and almost submerge themselves but leave their nose up to breath. That is rare, but pretty neat.

How to know when you are in Swamper (we called em Canecutters)country, is when you start seeing rabbit pills double to triple the normal size and they like to leave them in the same piles on top of logs and they really like to poop on stumps. It is not uncommon to see enough pills to fill a big coffee can on a stump. And when you see that you know you are in Canecutter country.

We hunt swamp rabbits down in Western Kentucky and the biggest one we've killed would stretch from the tip of a Remington Model 870 Wingmaster 12 gauge with a 26 inch barrel all the way to past the receiver. I've got a picture of it up against a yard stick and it measured like 25 inches after rigor set in. When we hunt swampers it is not uncommon to have a run that last 1 1/2 hours but we've had them last up to 2 1/2 in really thick cover. You've got to have a dog that is not afraid of the water and doesn't mind hunting in the hardest conditions possible. The problem with swampers is that they are losing their habitats. It is hard to find a good piece of swamper territory that hasn't been hunted to hard. Most of our hunts are on the Wildlife Refuges and you really have to get into the thick stuff to find the rabbits. Most guys hunt right by the side of the road because it is easier and they don't have to get in the water. We like to go to the nastiest places they got. It is a mother to kill in these thick places, but you get awesome runs!